Muslim Brotherhood Goes Mainstream in Egypt

CAIRO – Egyptians voted in a nationwide referendum
yesterday on proposed amendments to the constitutional articles that
govern the electoral process. But regardless of the outcome, political
analysts are certain that the Muslim Brotherhood, outlawed throughout
the 30-year rule of ousted president Hosni Mubarak, remains poised to be
an electoral force to be reckoned with.

“Despite three decades of repression at the hands of the Mubarak
regime, the Muslim Brotherhood represents the primary player in Egypt’s
post-revolutionary political arena,” Tarek Fahmi, political science
professor at Cairo University, told IPS. “For the first time since its
establishment, the Brotherhood has an opportunity to come to power via
a free and fair electoral process.”

On Feb. 11, Mubarak handed executive authority over to Egypt’s armed
forces. In the five weeks since, the military—which has vowed to run
the nation’s affairs until free presidential and parliamentary
elections can be held—has met a number of the people’s demands,
including the replacement of most Mubarak-appointed government
ministers.

Within days of Mubarak’s departure, the Muslim Brotherhood announced
plans to establish an official political party. Despite the significant
popular support it has traditionally enjoyed, the Brotherhood—established in 1928 and formally banned by the state in 1954—has
never existed in Egypt as an official political party.

“As soon as changes are made to Egypt’s Political Parties Law, we plan
to apply for the establishment of a political party,” Mohamed Saad
al-Kitatni, head of the Brotherhood’s parliamentary bloc from 2005 to
2010, said on Feb. 18.

In the first-ever appearance by a member of the group on state
television, al-Kitatni stressed that the Brotherhood stands for a civil,
rather than theocratic, system of governance. “We want a civil state
based on Islamic Law and principles such as freedom of thought, justice
for all, and equality before the law regardless of race, gender, or
religion,” he said.

Al-Kitatni went on to say that the group would not field a candidate in
upcoming presidential elections, nor would it seek to capture a large
majority in parliament.

“We don’t want to give our domestic rivals or our foreign critics any
reason to fear us,” he said. “We want to compete fairly with other
political movements, which we know were also oppressed under the Mubarak
regime.”

Three days after al-Kitatni’s televised comments, Brotherhood leader
Mohamed Badie formally announced plans to found a political party, to be
dubbed the Justice and Freedom Party. While sharing many of the same
members and political objectives as the Brotherhood, he explained, the
new party would constitute a separate organizational entity.

Badie has meanwhile mandated leading Brotherhood member Khairet
al-Shatter with determining the means of coordinating between the
Brotherhood and the new party. Al-Shatter was recently appointed to the
group’s number-two position after finishing a four-year prison sentence
at the hands of the Mubarak regime.

But many of the Brotherhood’s critics remain concerned by the fact that
the group has yet to articulate its official position on a handful of
key issues. In early 2008, the Brotherhood unveiled a preliminary
political program, but later retracted it following the eruption of
controversy over its stance on, among other things, the permissibility
of fielding female or non-Muslim presidential candidates.

“Some segments of the Egyptian public remain suspicious of the
Brotherhood due to its ambiguous position vis-à-vis the role of
Christians and women in the political arena,” said Fahmi. “Why has it
taken the group so long to produce an official party platform? The
Brotherhood must provide a clear explanation of its stance on major
issues and hold open dialogue with opposition figures and church
leaders.”

Last month, the Brotherhood drew up a committee tasked with formulating
the proposed Justice and Freedom Party’s official political agenda. On
March 16, independent Egyptian daily Al-Shorouk quoted a member of the
committee as saying that the new party’s official program “would be
issued as soon as it is finalized.”

Notably, the same source said the committee had “agreed to drop a number
of controversial articles that had been included in the Muslim
Brotherhood’s earlier proposed party platform, especially those
stipulating that any presidential candidate fielded by the party must be
a Muslim man.”

Meanwhile, some western critics have also voiced concern that, were the
Muslim Brotherhood to eventually assume power, it might be tempted to
withdraw from the 1979 Camp David peace agreement between Egypt and
Israel.

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Essam al-Arian, however, insisted that any
change in Egyptian foreign policy would reflect the will of the Egyptian
people. “The coming parliament, which will be elected by the people,
will decide Egypt’s position regarding all international agreements and
treaties,” al-Arian told IPS.

Fahmi, for his part, believes the Brotherhood’s new-found political
legitimacy will lead to “the formulation of a new foreign policy that
can be expected to reinvigorate Egypt’s historical role as regional
leader—a role that was largely destroyed by the Mubarak regime’s
close relationship with the U.S. and Israel.”

“The Hamas-run Gaza Strip, to cite only one example, was viewed
largely by the Mubarak regime as a strategic threat,” Fahmi added. “But
if the Brotherhood is granted political legitimacy, Gaza will come to
be seen as Egypt’s first line of defense in the confrontation with
Israel.”